Behind him was the open hill on which the greatest Orators of the world had held five thousand persons at once in mute attention. Immediately below him was the beautiful circle · of the Agora, planted with wide-spreading plane-trees, and adorned with exquisite statues, marble, bronze, and gilded; decorated with frescoed Porticoes, and noble Halls and Temples, productions of Athenian genius, and monuments of Athenian glory. Here were the seminaries of sages; there, he who had been pronounced by an Oracle the wisest of men, Socrates, had dwelt; beyond, near that olive grove, Plato had taught; on the other side of the city, was the school of him who had trained the conqueror of the world. Wherever the Apostle, standing on Mars' Hill, turned his eyes, he contemplated objects which were associated, in the minds of his hearers, with the proudest triumphs of human knowledge, and intellectual power. And what then were the thoughts-what was the language of St. Paul?-He was not dazzled by this blaze of splendour. He knew well, that nothing would be so acceptable to his audience as eulogies of their national intelligence; and he stood arraigned and alone before them. And yet, he would not idolize the Genius, nor the Philosophy and Eloquence of Athens. No. The accused Apostle became an accuser. He charged the wise Athenians with folly. The enlightend city, he said, was full of darkness. Gods it had many, but it had not GOD; the gods which it knew were false; the true God, it knew Him not. Him, said the Apostle, the UNKNOWN GOD, declare I unto you; He is your Creator, and your Lord. All your past history, on which you dwell with so much pride and fondness, was a time of ignorance— an age of gloom. The times of this ignorance, he says, God winked at; but now He commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent; because, He hath appointed a day, in which He will judge the world by that Man whom He hath ordained, JESUS CHRIST ". Yes, be it known to you all, you Athenians, you who have charged me with impiety, you are strangers to God; you Acts xvii. 30, 31. Areopagites, who sit here to judge me, you all will be judged by Him Whom I preach to you, JESUS CHRIST. Such was St. Paul's language to the Athenians; and thus he pronounced a divinely-inspired verdict concerning the question of the Patriarch, in the text-Where shall Wisdom be found, and where is the place of Understanding? Not among the wise of this world-not in the schools of secular philosophy-not amid the ingenious creations of art and man's device; for, as St. Paul expressly says, the World by Wisdom knew not God; but, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is Wisdom, and to depart from Evil is Understanding. Let us now change the scene from ancient times to our own; and let us examine whether the lapse of near twenty centuries has in any degree impaired the truth of the assertion, Behold, the fear of God, that is Wisdom, and to depart from evil is Understanding. When Thy judgments are in the earth, says the Prophet to Almighty God, then the inhabitants of the world shall learn righteousness. And another Prophet exclaims, the Lord's voice crieth in the city, and the man of wisdom shall see Thy name. Hear ye the rod, and Who hath appointed it. : God's judgments are now in the world; the rod has spoken to us all and it is our duty to study the Book of God's Providence, no less than that of His Word, and to learn wisdom from both. Let us therefore inquire what He now teaches us on this important question-Where shall Wisdom be found, and where is the place of Understanding? The mag If we had been asked, a short time since, to name a City in our own age which presented a striking resemblance to the intellectual capital of ancient Greece, we should, I think, have had little difficulty in replying to that question. nificent splendour of its buildings, the natural quickness of the faculties of its people, and the lively buoyancy of their spirits, and we may add, even the genial softness of its climate, and the beautiful transparency of its atmosphere, would have sufficed to mark out one City of continental Europe as bearing a remarkable similitude to the Athenian capital. And if we a 1 Cor. i. 21 b Isaiah xxvi. 9. c Micah vi. 9. proceed further with the parallel, we perceive still more striking features of resemblance. I do not suppose that any Nation has ever existed on the surface of the earth, in which what is usually called popular intelligence has been more generally diffused than in that Country, which is separated from our own by a narrow interval of waters. Let any one carefully examine the ingenious processes by which an elaborate system of NATIONAL INSTRUCTION was organized in that Country, about forty years ago, and made coextensive with its entire territory, while it was centralized, in one secular focus, in the Capital-let him trace, one by one, the legislative measures" which were adopted, at intervals, since that period, especially fifteen See them detailed in the Work of M. De Riancey, Histoire de l'Instruction publique. Paris. 2 tom. 1844. Tome ii. pp. 91-477. In the celebrated Law sur l'Instruction Primaire, bearing the following date and signatures : "Fait à Paris, le 28 jour du mois de Juin 1833. LOUIS PHILIPPE ; de l'Instruction Publique. Fifteen years have passed away, during which this Law has been in full operation; and what was the condition of Paris on its fifteenth anniversary? On the 28th of June 1848, the Monarch and Minister who had affixed their signatures to this Act, were exiles in England. Paris had just been the scene of a four days' massacre; viz. on the 23rd, 24th, 25th, and 26th of June: the Archbishop of Paris was lying a corpse, killed in a tumult; 6,500 insurgents were in the public prisons; Paris was in a state of siege; and on the 28th June, General Cavaignac was named CHEF DU Ρουνοικ. The following is a brief description of the events of the four days; from the "Constitutionnel,” a liberal Journal : "Nous ne pouvons connaître encore toute l'étendue de nos pertes, et nous n'avons pas le courage de chercher à les évaluer : elles sont affreuses. On ne trouverait dans les annales d'aucune nation un exemple d'une lutte aussi acharnée et aussi meurtrière. Des actes d'une férocité incroyable ont été accomplis par ces malheureux, dont beaucoup avaient été égarés, mais dont un certain nombre pourtant semblent avoir obéi à des passions sauvages, et s'être livrés à un véritable dévergondage de barbarie. “Nous avons déjà dit, et nous devons répéter que la lutte qui vient de finir n'a ressemblé en rien aux insurrections qui ont plusieurs fois ensanglanté Paris. C'était alors la lutte de deux systèmes politiques, c'était une guerre déclarée par une minorité au gouvernement en possession du pouvoir; le combat était acharné, mais il se soutenait presque toujours years ago, to give greater vigour and consolidation to that Popular System-let him count the vast sums of public money which have been expended by that Nation on this gigantic plan of Instruction, and he will confess, that similar efforts have scarcely ever before been made by any Nation for the dissemination of human Knowledge, and for training an entire people with all the aids and appliances of secular philosophy. Truly there, as the Prophet has predicted of the latter days-Many have run to and fro, and Knowledge has been increased; and, in the words of the Wise Man, They have sought out many inventions". We are now led to inquire, What results have been produced by this vast, complex, and costly machinery of National Instruction? Has the diffusion of Knowledge exercised a purifying influence on the national heart? It has imparted power has it inspired love? It has sharpened the intellectbut has it disciplined the affections? It has stimulated the faculties has it calmed the passions? It has increased greatly the ability to do evil-has it augmented the disposition to do good? It has made men resent, with feverish irritability, any imputations of ignorance-but has it made them shudder at the thought of committing crime? Has it taught them to fear the Lord and the King? to be subject to Principalities and Powers, which are the ordinance of God? Has it deterred them from despising Government? and from Sedition, Insurrection, and Rebellion, which are as the sin of Witchcraft? Has it made them recoil from shedding the loyalement, sans trahison ni cruauté, et un meurtre inutile soulevait plus l'opinion publique et provoquait une plus grande réprobation que l'initiative "Cette fois le drapeau rouge a été déployé, l'émeute s'est battue aux cris de--Vive la Republique sociale! et comme commentaire de ce cri de ralliement, elle a écrit sur plusieurs de ses drapeaux les mots de: "Pillage et le viol." La postérité refusera de croire les supplices infligés à des prisonniers par des concitoyens, dans un siècle comme le nôtre et dans la capitale du pays qui se vante d'être à la tête de la civilisation. A juger par ce qu'a fait l'émeute vaincue, on frémit de penser au sort qui était réservé à Paris si cette entreprise sacrilége avait pu réussir.” blood like water of their own fellow citizens? and from tearing the vitals of their Country, with the parricidal and sacrilegious ravages of civil war "? In this Sacred Place we are bound to throw a veil over the scenes of carnage, confusion, and anarchy, and all their miserable consequences-distrust and distress-the paralyzation of trade, and the prostration of industry-which supply the answer to these necessary though painful questions. But the House The author, in giving utterance to the above sentiments, will not be charged with national prejudice; for he is only re-echoing, and that faintly, the language of some of the most eminent persons in France. The following is from a letter of a French Clergyman, a Member of the National Assembly of France, the Abbé Le Blanc; written a few days after the massacre of June last : "Les quatre épouvantables journées de Juin viennent de finir à peine; Paris est dans le deuil. Les âmes sont encore vibrantes des émotions les plus douloureuses." The Abbé then speaks of the Instruction given to those concerned in these horrible outrages. "La vraie Education n'a-t-elle pas manqué à ce peuple, cette fraction du peuple que nous avons eue en tête, il y a quelques jours? N'aurons-nous que des coups des fusil et des malédictions pour ces hommes égarés, ne saurons-nous que nous indigner d'une indignation stérile au terrible souvenir de ces atrocités dignes des Anthropophages qui ont souillé la capitale du monde civilisé ? 66 Indignons-nous, répétons que ces hommes sont des monstres, frémissons à la pensée que nous n'avons eu peut-être encore affaire qu'à l'avantgarde d'une armée de Cannibales. "Mais après l'explosion de sa colère, que la société s'examine et s'interroge devant Dieu, qu'elle se juge et que, descendant aux causes, elle ose se dire: Je ne suis nullement solidaire de ces crimes. "Le mal est profond; l'âme du peuple, desséchée par une Education sans onction et sans amour, a besoin d'être refaite, repétrie, pour ainsi dire: Nous savons tous ce que c'est que l'Instruction primaire en France; elle peut distribuer quelques notions superficielles, donner un premier développement à l'esprit; mais a-t-elle un mot pour le cœur? Elle saisit l'enfant par la memoire; elle n'a aucune prise sur lui par le cœur, et cependant le cœur est la source de la vie morale: de corde procedit vita. L'Instruction telle que nous la donnons à des mots sonores sur les devoirs dont elle ne sait pas la raison, des mots plus sonores sur les droits qu'il faut apprendre à chacun à respecter dans tous, mais dont il ne faut pas surexciter les sentiment personnel en des âmes qui ne savent pas se posséder elles-mêmes. Elle pousse, cette Instruction, à la recherche du bien-être; la vie, c'est, d'après elle, une |